Entertainment

Drama Mama

Your weekly guide to TV’s best and worst one-hour shows.

Call it a soapy renaissance: “General Hospital” and “Young and the Restless” are each celebrating milestone anniversaries, and by the end of the month, canceled daytime dramas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” pull a “Walking Dead” and rise from their graves to new life on the Web. Where to find sudsy veterans elsewhere:

“Criminal Minds” (Wednesday, 9 p.m., CBS)

Dig out your shoulder pads and sequined gowns to conjure up the “Dynasty” memories of Pamela Bellwood, who played crazy Claudia — she debuted on the series in an insane asylum, married gay Steven, tossed a baby from her apartment roof and ended up dying in an inferno she caused. This week the actress pops up as a much-saner local newspaper editor in the small town the BAU team descends upon after an inevitable gruesome discovery is made.

“Person of Interest” (Thursday, 9 p.m., CBS)

Larry Bryggman can trace his acting career back to the wily Dr. John Dixon on “As the World Turns,” which employed him to Emmy-winning effect for three decades. Although he’s just another suited guest star in a case concerning a tech company’s sabotage, of greater interest in this episode is the return of Sarah Shahi as badass agent Samantha Shaw. CBS must be praying for the end of “Fairly Legal” so they can build a spinoff around the coolest female law enforcer since Karen Sisco.

“Cult” (Friday, 9 p.m., The CW)

One of the early exits from Lifetime’s nighttime soap “Army Wives,” Brigid Brannagh guest stars as the owner of an abandoned house where Sakelik (Aisha Hinds) was found by police 25 years ago. And since the original “Wives” is unrecognizable since most of the original characters have jumped ship, you might as well tune into this teen series that investigates the underbelly of a reality series.

“Touch” (Friday, 9 p.m., Fox)

Frances Fisher is probably best known as the mom on “Titanic,” but she spent the early part of her career on soaps, most notably as Deborah Saxon, the detective who always managed to get herself kidnapped on “The Edge of Night” from 1976 to 1981. She now plays the CEO of evil Aster Corps and tries to woo brainiac Calvin (Lukas Haas) back to the company. — Tiffany Wendeln Connors